Breaking Points interviews Yale Law School professor Samuel Moyn about his book Gerontocracy in America and his argument that US institutions increasingly reflect the interests of older Americans. Moyn distinguishes the age of politicians from what he calls broader “elder control” through voting patterns, campaign finance and wealth. He proposes conventional measures such as age limits for office, but also floats more structural interventions including youth quotas for representation, easier voting access for younger people (holiday voting, looser registration rules), and changes to election frequency.
The most contentious exchange centres on Moyn’s suggestion that younger voters’ ballots should be given extra weight because younger people live longer under the policies chosen; he insists he is not calling to strip older people of voting rights. He cites examples intended to show age skew in participation, including a claim that the median age of New Mexico primary voters in 2024 was 72.
Host counterarguments stress class and campaign finance as the core drivers of political power, warning that age-based analysis can become divisive. Moyn responds that age can be a “modality” through which class is lived, alongside factors such as race and gender. On policy, he argues against cutting Social Security as a route to intergenerational fairness, and calls Medicare’s lack of long-term care coverage a “scandal”, advocating more socialised care and higher taxation of wealthy older people. The conversation closes with a brief joking aside about Mitch McConnell.
Samuel Moyn argues that older Americans can wield outsised influence in low-salience elections. He claims New Mexico’s 2024 primaries had a median voter age of 72 and suggests reforms such as fewer elections and easier voting access for younger workers.
Read this moment →Samuel Moyn argues that democratic equality should account for how long people will live under the policies chosen in elections. He says he is not calling for removing older people’s voting rights, but for increasing the weight of younger voters’ ballots because they face longer-term consequences.
Read this moment →Samuel Moyn argues the US safety net leaves many older people fearful about care in later life. He says Medicare’s exclusion of long-term maintenance care is a scandal, and suggests expanding socialised care funded by higher taxes on wealthy older people.
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